Mixed Blessings
by a-big-apple
Summary: Yugi's defeated and Tenchi's home from Tokyo for good--except Ryoko isn't quite herself. She wears looser clothes, she's stopped drinking sake, and she disappears for hours and comes back with...ice cream and pickles? Tenchi in Tokyo, Aeka's POV, T/R/A.
1. Week 3

Hello readers! Welcome to the first Tenchi fic I've managed to actually complete. It turned into a T/R/A when I wasn't looking, and I rather like it that way, I hope you do too. It's set in the Tenchi in Tokyo universe—which, if you haven't seen it, is pretty different from the rest of the Tenchi universes. This story begins just after Yugi has been defeated and Tenchi has come home from Tokyo for good. Also, don't get confused by the chapter titles seeming to skip numbers—the week designations will start to make sense pretty quickly. Please feel free to comment or ask questions!

I don't own any kind of Tenchi in any way, except for one small original character you'll meet very soon. :)

~o~o~o~

Mixed Blessings

~o~o~o~

~Week 3 - shortly after Tenchi's return from Tokyo~

I wake to a dull ache in my back and my stomach, a pain that intensifies as I rise further out of sleep. I press my face into my pillow and curl up tighter on the futon. _What a grand way to start the day,_ I think, then sigh tiredly and rise. The pain snakes down into my legs as I walk to the bathroom down the hall, tabulating the days in my head. _Yes…I suppose it is the right time. I hope Ryoko's not_—

"Oh, good, good morning, Ryoko," Tenchi stutters downstairs.

"Good morning, Tenchi," she cooes back, and I can hear the electric hum of her teleportation and Tenchi's awkward gulp as she reappears.

"H-h-how are you feeling today?"

"Right as rain, my Tenchi! How sweet of you to ask!"

"Ryoko, now, please don't—Ryoko!"

I sigh and close the bathroom door behind me, blotting out their voices. Anger flares as I imagine Ryoko's usual morning atrocities, but I'm too tired to act on it just yet. _She seems in a good mood, at least. _I think about Tenchi's nervous questioning, and drop my face into my hands, feeling it redden. _I bet Washu keeps track—she must have warned him we're both due. How humiliating._ Hoping against hope that Washu spared Tenchi the details of Juraian menstrual cycles, I rub my temples to soothe the headache that's already beginning. _Even if Ryoko and I aren't on the same schedule anymore…it's still going to be a long, long day._

~o~o~o~

A few minutes later, comfortably dressed and highly medicated, I make my way downstairs for breakfast. _It's lucky mother thought to send me some painkillers from home,_ I think, feeling the morning's cramps being swiftly replaced by my stomach growling for food. _Otherwise I'd be stuck using those primitive Earth pills. What did that store clerk call them? My-doll? What an odd planet this is._ Then I catch sight of Tenchi, already sitting at the table, and can't help but smile. _Though it does have its charming qualities, as well_.

"Whaddya know, for once Princess Prissy-Pants is later for breakfast than me!" My eyes shoot from Tenchi's soft eyes to Ryoko's teasing expression, and I can feel my shoulders stiffen. _How dare she!_

"Shut your mouth, beast woman," I snap, and I can tell from the surprise on Tenchi's face that my tone was fiercer than usual. Ryoko frowns, looking like she's cooking up a scathing reply, when I see her take in my looser robes. I can see the realization strike her, and she flashes a startlingly sympathetic smile, then covers it with a more typical leer.

"Someone's got her panties in a knot." But her words don't hold the usual venom, and I take my seat at the table across from her, frowning but grateful. In the months Tenchi spent at school in Tokyo, our cycle-induced fights escalated when we fell into synch, but the rest of the time…it was strange to think about, but we were united with each other against Yugi and Sakuya, and the effects held on past the battle and Tenchi's return. _We have an understanding, I suppose_.

"Oh, good morning, Aeka!" Sasami grins brightly at me, as always, as she brings in a heaping tray of food from the kitchen. "You're just in time. Father left for work already, so I guess it's just the four of us today…"

"Five," Washu corrects her, peeking out from the lab door. "Breakfast smells delicious!" The little scientist seats herself beside me, and I see her eyes pass consideringly over me before sliding swiftly to Ryoko. I expect to see relief on her face—certainly if she can tell that I'm menstruating, she can also tell that Ryoko is not—but instead she frowns, just a little, before grabbing her chopsticks and diving into her food.

"This is delicious, Sasami," I murmur, eating my own more daintily, and the sentiment is echoed around the table. Sasami blushes, delighted, as she does at every meal, and breakfast continues in the usual fashion. Every now and then I glance over at Washu; she seems to be working something over in her mind this morning, glancing at Ryoko frequently. _What's so interesting about that pirate today?_


	2. Week 4

~Week 4~

My courses have come and gone, and I find myself waiting with some anxiety for the usual explosion of foul-moodedness to overtake Ryoko; I think like it better when we can both get it over with at once. The fights are fiercer those months, but they are over faster, too. It seems to me that Washu is also waiting, and I wonder if she knows more than she's letting on. Ryoko may have whims that shift like the wind, but her body's as regular as a clock.

~o~o~o~

"Ryoko?"

The pirate looks up sharply at Sasami, snapped out of whatever internal world she was drifting through. "Huh?"

"Is the food all right? You've hardly eaten anything..."

"Oh...it's great, Sasami, I'm just not that hungry."

"Now there's a shocker," Washu murmurs, and I can't tell if she means it sarcastically or not. Ryoko's hand twitches on the table. While I'm still deciding if I should open my mouth, and what should or shouldn't come out of it, Tenchi disarms her with a smile.

"Well, I'd like some more of the fish tempura! Ryoko, could you pass me some please?"

The pirate blinks, and a flush rises in her face at the smile he's giving her--_he's getting good at that,_ I think--and then she looks away quickly, handing him the tempura platter.

"That was delicious, Sasami," she murmurs, and stands. "Thanks." She gathers her dishes and brings them to the kitchen, and I can hear her drop them into the sink and teleport away.

Mihoshi, here with Kiyone in their usual state of poverty and hunger, is the first one to break the surprised silence that follows. "Wow, you know, Ryoko's manners are getting better, aren't they?"

~o~o~o~

"Do you have any suspicions, Washu?" I ask the scientist later, as we stretch out across from each other in the onsen. She looks over at me, half her face in the water, and raises an eyebrow. "About Ryoko," I clarify, though I'm sure she knew what I meant.

She sits up, smiling. "Of course I do. What kind of genius would I be if I didn't? But I'm not sure I should share them."

"Oh."

"I don't think she's in any danger," Washu adds, her glance amused. "Why, getting worried about her?"

"Good heavens, no."

Washu laughs, and gestures to the floating sake tray near my elbow. "Shove that over here, would you?" I give it a gentle push and she hooks it with her foot, filling a saucer and knocking it back with an appreciative sigh. "Now, that's the stuff."

We soak and drink in companionable silence for a while; Washu keeps getting redder, but I know from experience that she can drink me under the table despite her small frame. I touch my face, knowing I must be red as a beet myself, but I'm startled out of wondering by the _shhhhk_ of the onsen door sliding open.

"Ryoko! Come join us for some sake," Washu calls, grinning, and the taller woman chuckles softly, balancing a basket with soap and towels on her hip.

"In a minute." Then she disappears out of sight behind a crag of rock to wash. I glance over at Washu; she shrugs. _Modesty is not Ryoko's usual M.O…._

She returns a few minutes later by teleportation, her sudden presence in the water making ripples that tip the sake tray dizzily about between us. Washu kicks it lightly toward her, and Ryoko catches it, then passes it on to me without taking a saucer. The scientist and I exchange looks again, silent. _Will wonders never cease?_

~o~o~o~

The sake knocks me to sleep hard, and I have strange dreams; I'm up on the roof, for some reason, when I realize that I never took down the barbed wire I'd strung to keep Yugi at bay. Ryoko is chasing Tenchi through it, trying to get her hands on him the way she always does, until he pushes her off and she gets tangled in the wire. I shout to her to phase through it, or teleport, but she struggles after Tenchi without heeding me, the barbs cutting into her skin. For some reason there's no blood, but it hurts her all the same and she moans with pain, a sound I've never heard her make before. I wake up confused and disoriented; the sun is barely beginning to rise, and Sasami's already gone, probably starting breakfast. It's earlier than I thought I would wake, and I'm surprised, until the urging of my bladder gets me up and propels me down the hall. In the dim hallway, I can see a sliver of light from underneath the bathroom door; I pause, waiting for whomever it is to come out. That's when I hear it, soft, but distinct—Ryoko, that moan of pain, and then the unmistakable sound of retching.

Maybe it's just easier to see someone else's secrets in the early morning, but all at once I put it together, every strange thing she's said or done in the last few weeks and the temper-inducing courses that never came. I slide the door quietly open.

She's on her knees, one hand wrapped around her stomach, the other gripping the bowl hard enough to crack the porcelain. She looks awful—pale and exhausted, her hair hanging limply around her face and sticking to her neck. She still hasn't noticed I'm there, so I know she must be miserable. I close the door again and slip downstairs, taking a cloth from the kitchen and soaking it in cold water at the sink. Thankfully, Sasami is in the shed getting vegetables for the morning's cooking, and I'm in and out quickly. When I open the bathroom door again, Ryoko's shoulders are hunched, the corded muscles of her arms taut and straining. I slide to my knees just a little behind her, gently gathering her hair away from her face with one hand, and pressing the cold cloth to her forehead with the other. She turns just enough to see me out of the corner of her eye, and her face tells me she's surprised, but too weakened to do anything except lean into my body, exhausted. "Aeka," she murmurs, hoarse and trembly, and I fold her against my chest, wiping the sweat from her face.

"Shh. It'll pass soon."

She shudders and lets her head droop a little, and we stay that way for a long while, long enough to tell the worst is over. She takes a few deep breaths, some of the color coming back to her face, though there are bluish circles under her eyes. Without looking at me, she sits up a little. "Thank you," she says quietly, and her voice is thick with shame, and weariness. For a moment I'm not sure what to say; through everything that's happened since we both fell to the Earth, Ryoko has always been so strong, so brash. To see her vulnerable is a little shocking to me, and yet somehow a relief—_she is as human as I am_. I lay my hand over hers, pressed to her stomach.

"I won't breathe a word about it to anyone, Ryoko, if you don't want me to…but let me help you. You shouldn't do this alone."

She flinches, startled, and turns to me; there is naked fear in her eyes, now that she knows I've guessed her condition, but I hold her gaze and try to look as sincere as I'm suddenly feeling. She is silent for a long, tense stretch, her mouth working. Then she leans back into my arm again, boneless. "I don't know what to do."

"I'll help you. And I think Washu might already have figured it out, also—I'm sure she can come up with something to ease your stomach, at the very least." She nods, too tired to say anything else. "That Hotsuma man, right?" I murmur, and she nods again, tensely.

"I…I thought I'd lost Tenchi, forever."

"I thought the same."

Ryoko grimaces. "I should have stayed. I shouldn't have left Sasami so unprotected, at least. I'm sorry."

I squeeze her shoulder. "It's all right. We both did what we needed to, in the end. Now let's get you back to bed—there's still a little time before breakfast."

The pirate groans at the mention of food, but stands when I pull her to her feet, and keeps only the lightest touch on my arm to steady herself on the way back to her room. I smile. _She's still strong, if nothing else…._ The moment the door closes behind us, she collapses on her futon with a sigh, and I can't help but chuckle. "I'll come wake you when it's time to eat."

"Ugh, I don't want to eat ever again."

"Well, you have to, there's no getting around it. And try to at least approximate your usual gluttonous self, can't you? You need the nutrients, and eventually even Tenchi's bound to notice if you're not wolfing down your food."

She answers with a very rude gesture—_Back to her usual self, I see!_—and turns away from me. I smile, shaking my head and wondering how we came to be this way, rivals and friends at the same time. It's very clear to me now, as the early sunlight filters through the window on the far wall and spills over Ryoko's splayed limbs. We have somehow become comrades, some moment when I wasn't looking—or maybe it was just too slow to see. I turn to leave, eager to finally have a turn in the bathroom, and Ryoko is asleep and snoring before I've even gotten through the door.


	3. Week 12

~Week 12~

The days are so peaceful since Tenchi came home, they seem to pass so quickly; I can hardly believe it's been months since I discovered Ryoko that morning in the bathroom, but I can see the changes every day now. _Soon_, I think, _even Tenchi is going to notice_.

Washu's home-made morning sickness remedy worked like a charm—"It ought to," she told me, "I engineered it to Ryoko specifically!"—but the pirate doesn't take it anymore. She doesn't need to; it seems the months of sickness have passed, and now she grows more radiant every day, like all the old wives' tales say she should. Of course, sometimes I'm terribly jealous, of her new glowing beauty and of her growing child, but it's just fuel for our play-fights. We try to keep up appearances, arguing across the dinner table, though I'm sure it's clear to everyone that we both lack our old venom. It's been ages since we had an all-out physical battle—we agreed early on that it would be too risky, not knowing what might hurt the baby. I think Tenchi is pleased by the growing peace between us, though I'm sure he can't fathom how it came about. Sometimes I can't help but laugh, watching his baffled expressions, and I can tell that Washu's laughing with me, from the sparkle in her eyes. We both agree, the scientist and I, that Ryoko will have to make an announcement very soon. I think she's just working up the courage, and I can certainly understand that. Some things are hard to say.

~o~o~o~

It comes to a head at dinner one night. With her genuine appetite back plus one, Ryoko devours a huge amount of food at meals, and disappears frequently to get snacks or satisfy cravings at the market in town. When Tenchi and Sasami started making noises about the money she was spending, she blushed—actually blushed—and started dipping into her trove of cash from her recent time in space. "Seems only right," she said one evening as we shared a quart of fudge ripple ice cream, "that Hotsuma should help me pay for the kid, doesn't it?" I laughed.

"Just don't let Kiyone find out that you kept all that treasure…"

But even with a constant supply of snacks, courtesy the stolen funds, Ryoko still eats like a horse. It's a full table tonight; even Katsuhito is down from the shrine to share a meal, sitting serenely between Kiyone and Nobuyuki. It's Nobuyuki, in his blundering way, who finally sets things in motion.

"You sure do have a big appetite lately, Ryoko," he comments, reaching for more fried tofu and snaring a piece before she polishes off the plate. "You know, I think you've been putting on a little weight."

Time seems to freeze for a moment as everyone's eyes widen—even Mihoshi knows that's not the kind of thing you say to Ryoko, not even when she's been so calm and happy lately—and the pirate's eyes narrow sharply. She stands, her gaze fixed on Father as he tries to backpedal. "Well, now, don't get angry, Ryoko, I think you…you carry it very well! I mean, I, ah…. Please don't blow up the house…."

Then Washu snorts with barely contained laughter, and the tension pops like a bubble. Ryoko smiles lopsidedly and looks down at herself, then over at me. I nod. Now seems to be the time.

"Listen, everyone…there's something I need to tell all of you."

Tenchi looks up at her with some concern. "Is everything all right, Ryoko?"

She smiles gently. "Just hear me out, okay?" She pauses, gathering her composure, and I can tell she's been rehearsing what to say, just in case the moment arises. The thought makes me smile, and I lay my hand over her foot, beneath the table where nobody can see. She straightens at that, suddenly calm. "You all know that I went back to pirating for a while, when Tenchi was gone." There are nods around the table, and a suspicious look from Kiyone in response. "Well…Kiyone and Mihoshi spent some time with me out there, they know better than anyone else how hard I was trying to forget about Earth, and my family here. We know now that Hotsuma was sent to me by Yugi, part of her plans to separate us, but I didn't know that at the time. He was a good partner, as pirates go. I wasn't in love with him, or anything, and looking back on it, I think I was too confused and lost to have loved anyone new in my life, but…." She pauses, losing steam as she looks around at everyone's anxious and puzzled expressions. "Well, love doesn't matter for everything, and…well…"

"Just tell them straight, Ryoko," Washu interrupts, grinning, and Ryoko lets out a shaky breath.

"Well," she says, smiling nervously and laying a hand over her stomach, "I'm pregnant."

I can almost hear Ryoko's anxious heartbeat in the shocked silence that follows; then Katsuhito calmly takes a sip of his tea. "That explains quite a lot," he murmurs as he sets the cup down, and then the table explodes with noise.

Sasami leaps to her feet and throws her arms around the pirate, grinning brighter than a star. "You're gonna have a BABY? That's so exciting, Ryoko!" Mihoshi isn't far behind, blubbering about how happy she is, and Kiyone just looks smug.

"Huh, I thought so!"

Nobuyuki elbows Katsuhito with a gleam in his eye. "It'll be almost like I'm a grandfather!" he shouts, clearly delighted.

Tenchi is still trying to process the information, though I think he's just relieved that it's not a prank Ryoko's playing, telling everyone she's carrying _his_ child. When she glances down at him, though, even he's smart enough to see the fear behind her hopeful expression, and he smiles, bewildered. "Well…congratulations, Ryoko!"

Her eyes melt, and she suddenly looks happy, deliriously happy, and I know it's as I suspected—the real fear that she's been hiding from all of us the last three months was of Tenchi's anger or disapproval. This time he's finally done something right by her, and somehow it makes me love him even more.


	4. Week 16

~Week 16~

Christmas passes in a whirlwind of decorating and food and wrapping paper; everyone gets little trinkets for the baby, even though it's barely a bump, and Washu insists that Ryoko get an extra slice of the Christmas cake. Then before I know what hit me, it's New Year's Eve; Sasami makes us a feast, and sets some aside for Nobuyuki, who comes home from his office party late and red-faced with sake. Azaka and Kamidake are strung up with shimekezari, standing guard at the gate with festive cheerfulness, and a little before midnight Tenchi rouses us all from our places in front of the TV.

We turn the Song Festival off despite Mihoshi's inebriated whining, and hike up en masse to the shrine; we all huddle up together around the shrine's big bell, and I can see my breath misting in the air as Katsuhito steps forward. The bell's tolling is so loud it rattles my bones, but it's somehow pleasant, too, and Tenchi leans close to speak into my ear. "Usually it's just Buddhist shrines that ring their bells at midnight—but Grandpa likes to do it here too, because there isn't a Buddhist shrine near enough for us to hear it." I nod in understanding, and Ryoko elbows me from the other side, wanting in. I lean close to pass the information along, and she smiles, pleased by the explanation.

We stay there a while after the bell has rung its 108 times, but pretty soon Sasami's asleep in Tenchi's arms, and the wind is cold; all together again we make our way down the many steps, and I'm struck by how comfortable this moment is, this night, here with these people. Washu's got Nobuyuki by the arm—_the drunk leading the drunker_, I think—and Mihoshi's so full of energy that she races down ahead of us, then comes bubbling back, chattering away a mile a minute. Kiyone's had less to drink than I have, but she seems to have loosened up more, laughing at Mihoshi's antics and joking with Ryoko about something or other that happened months ago out in space—something to do with fire-breathing. Tenchi walks close to me, with Sasami's head tucked against his shoulder, and from the look on his face I can tell he's feeling the same sudden joy that I am. I slide my arm around his waist, emboldened by the night and the sake, and he gives me the sort of smile that makes me melt down to the very tips of my toes.

Eventually every celebration in the Masaki house turns into a karaoke party, and it's not long after we get back from the shrine that we break out fresh sake bottles and turn on the machine. Tenchi brings Sasami to bed and then sits on the couch with Ryoko, who's been admirably sober all evening, and they laugh and shout out scores while the rest of us sing. Bit by bit the night flies away; Kiyone drops off on the floor behind the couch, Nobuyuki passes out in a chair, and Washu stumbles blearily to her lab. Even Mihoshi eventually succumbs, half on the couch and half off, her limbs splayed every which way. I've had so much sake I can't quite tell which way is up anymore, and I vaguely hear Ryoko telling Tenchi to go on up to bed before her arms wrap snugly around me and she lifts me up off the couch like a child.

"'m too heavy," I mumble, and she chuckles.

"Don't be ridiculous." There's an electric sort of hum, and then a strange wrenching feeling in my gut as she teleports us upstairs—I think I would have been all right, if not for that awful sensation, and I grip Ryoko's shoulder, trying to formulate the right words.

"No…the bathroom…"

She must see on my face what I mean, and she curses under her breath; a minute later I'm evacuating my unhappy stomach and she's holding back my hair, chuckling to herself. "The tables are turned now, huh Princess?" All I can manage is a miserable moan, and she chuckles again, murmuring comforting, wordless syllables until there's nothing more for me to bring up.

A little time gets lost, then; all I really register is Ryoko's long-fingered hands, her arms, her voice in my ear, and suddenly there's something soft beneath me and a pillow under my head. I sigh, exhausted, and burrow in. "Wait, here, drink a little water first," Ryoko insists, and when I've had enough for her satisfaction, I bury my face in the pillow and fall immediately to sleep.

~o~o~o~

It's the sun that wakes me, burning into my eyelids and setting my head to pounding before I'm fully aware. My mouth is like cotton and I open my eyes slowly, shading them with my hand. _This isn't my room_…. I pull the blanket up over my head to block out the light, peering down at myself in confusion. Somehow I've been stripped down to my undergarment, and…_ugh, I need a bath. _Then a sigh and a shifting of limbs beside me startles me out of my confusion; I pop my head out of the blanket again, looking over, and there's Ryoko curled up beside me, her hair sticking out in wilder spikes than usual. _She put me to bed in her room,_ I realize with chagrin as details of the night before start to come back to me.

_Oh well,_ I think, watching the even rise and fall of her chest under the blanket. _I guess we're sort of even now. _I turn my back to the pirate, burrowing into the futon again—no sense in getting out of bed just yet. I'm almost back to sleep when the door slides quietly open. I hear someone pad across the floor, and then a hand touches my arm.

"Oneechan?" Sasami murmurs, and I open one eye. She smiles, a little bit satisfied and a little bit frustrated, and but mostly just her sunny morning smile. She lays a little tray on the floor, with a glass of water and a little cup with a white pill in it. "From Washu," she explains, and stands again. "I'll come and get you two in a little while for lunch, okay?"

"Thank you, Sasami," I croak, and she just shakes her head, sliding the door closed behind her.

"I'm surprised you're awake already," Ryoko mutters from behind me, yawning and stretching her limbs out under the blanket. Her foot brushes against my leg, and I'm suddenly glad she sleeps on an extra wide futon so she can sprawl, and that there's enough room for me on it too. "You should take that pill."

I just yawn in reply and reach for the glass. It isn't until later, when I'm putting last night's clothes back on to walk to the onsen, that I realize I don't recall undressing myself last night. I slide my bare arms through the sleeves and close the layered Juraian kimono around myself, suddenly imagining Ryoko laying me in bed, unknotting the obi, pulling those layers off…. I glance over at her furtively, and find her watching me with a tiny smirk on her face. I can feel my cheeks redden, and I gather up my obi without bothering to put it on. "I'm going to take a bath," I tell her, turning away, but I can hear her smile widen when she speaks.

"All right. See you at lunch." I slip out the door and into the hall, and behind me I can hear her muffled chuckle.


	5. Week 21

~Week 21~

The sun is just beginning to set. _Tenchi should be home soon with the groceries,_ I think to myself, sweeping the front stoop absently. Just as I think it, I hear him approaching through the thick trees that hide the path to the bus stop; from the sound of it, he's hauling a number of bags.

He comes suddenly into view, panting, and I wave with a wide smile. "Welcome home, Lord Tenchi!"

"Oh, hi, Aeka!" He smiles, his eyes darting up to the roof with a puzzled expression and then back down to me. "Would you mind helping me with some of these?"

"Of course…" I take all but one, eager to help, and carry them inside to the kitchen, where Sasami and Mihoshi are washing dishes from dinner.

"Oh, just leave those there for now, Aeka, I'll put them away when the dishes are done."

"All right." Turning, I realize Tenchi hasn't followed, so I slip outside again. The last bag is sitting on the stoop, and the ladder's propped up against the roof's edge. For a moment I'm confused, and then I hear voices above me, and I press back into the doorway to listen.

"Are you sure you should be up here?" Tenchi asks. "I mean, what if you…"

"Fall?" Ryoko answers, and I can hear the chuckle in her voice.

Tenchi laughs. "Yeah…forget I said that. I brought you a treat, from the store."

"Ooh, really? What is it?" There's a moment's silence, and then Ryoko squeals with delight. "My favorite tsukemono! You're so sweet, Tenchi."

I can nearly hear his blush, and it takes effort not to chuckle. "Well, I know Sasami always makes some pickles with dinner, but…I know you like the miso kind best, and they looked so tasty, I figured…"

"Thanks," she interrupts him, and I hear him sit down on the edge of the roof, presumably beside her. There's a long pause before either of them speak again, as the sun sinks below the mountains, bathing us in darkness.

"Ryoko…what was Hotsuma like? I only met him that one time, and…well, it wasn't the most usual of situations."

I'm surprised by the question, and I'm sure Ryoko is too; it takes her a moment to answer. "Well…I'm not entirely sure how to describe him. I don't think the Hotsuma I knew was really genuine…he was playing me, that whole time, pretending to be what I wanted."

"I…I guess that's why I'm asking."

"Tenchi…I'm not sure I understand."

Tenchi sighs. "I loved Sakuya. She was…she became very special to me. But she was created for me, sort of like Hotsuma playacting to be for you. And I'm not really sure she was actually what I wanted—just what I thought I wanted. Does that make sense?"

"Yes," Ryoko replies, her voice low and a little pained. "I think so."

"So…what was Hotsuma, to you? Was he really what you wanted?"

"Tenchi…"

They are both silent for a moment, and I take a risk, slipping out into the yard to look up at them. They're sitting together at the roof's peak with their backs to me, Ryoko leaning back on her hands, Tenchi watching her closely.

"I thought I wanted to forget you, Tenchi. I thought…that if I could go back to the way my life was before I met you, I wouldn't…I wouldn't hurt so much." She looks up at the stars above us, not meeting his eyes. "He wasn't anything like you, and that was appealing, distracting. Except his voice." She turns her head, finally, to look at him. "His voice was very much like yours. I could almost imagine it was you, if I closed my eyes when he said my name."

Tenchi looks down at his hands, embarrassed, or upset. It's hard to tell in the dark. "And you…ah…well, obviously you did, I guess…"

Ryoko's still watching him, and her voice sounds tired. "Slept with him? Yes." She sighs, rubbing a hand absently over the growing bulge in her dress. "He told me he was infertile. Lying bastard. I guess Yugi made him with everything intact." For some reason this makes Tenchi laugh, softly, and Ryoko chuckles too. "I guess we both screwed up, huh?"

"What made you decide to keep it?"

I can see her shrug, looking up at the stars again. "Just because her father was the son-of-a-bitch henchman of an evil mutant doesn't mean she doesn't deserve a chance, and a family."

Tenchi smiles at her, then blinks. "She?" Ryoko nods, and I watch them avidly, surprised. This is news to me. "Did Washu—"

"No," Ryoko says, shaking her head, her pale hair flashing in the moonlight. "I just know. What else could she be, in this house?" Then she opens the container of pickled vegetables and pops one in her mouth. "You know I love you, Tenchi," she continues, her voice falsely casual. "But I realized something, after everything that happened. It doesn't really matter who you're kissing. I mean, it hurt, when it wasn't me. But what matters is that I love you…and I know you love me too, in whatever way it is that you manage to love a pack of crazy alien women."

"Ryoko…" She looks over at him, and they watch each other for a moment, frozen. I feel frozen, too; the pirate's words ring true to me, and I suddenly wonder if he's going to kiss her, and if maybe it will hurt me less than I've always feared. Then he just leans over and wraps his arm around her shoulders, drawing her against his chest. She settles there, and they are so quiet that I fear they'll hear my heart pounding. Then I hear her breathing even out, and I know she's fallen asleep.

I stand there a moment, letting the gem I wear tied to my wrist slip down into my palm, fingering it absently. Then quietly I climb up the ladder, and Tenchi turns, holding out his hand without a word to help me sit beside him. He looks down at Ryoko and smoothes the hair out of her face. "She's right, you know. About me loving her. And I love you, too."

"I know, Tenchi," I murmur.

"What a strange crew we are, huh Aeka?"

I can't help but smile. "Indeed." Tenchi has kept my hand in his, and I squeeze it lightly. "You know, she was afraid you'd be angry, when you found out about the baby. She told me she felt like she'd betrayed you."

"We betrayed each other, I guess," he murmurs in reply. "But we've all got a fresh start, now."

I nod, lacing my fingers through his as Ryoko sighs contentedly in her sleep.


	6. Week 27

~Week 27~

Washu tugs the latex gloves off her hands and tosses them into a subspace pocket. "Well, the baby checks out all right," she says with an authoritative tone, and the pirate smiles, letting out a breath. She reaches for my hand, and I take it with a matching grin. Washu looks stern, though, considering Ryoko with hands on her hips. "But I think you're gonna have to be grounded, for the duration."

"What? You mean no flying?" Ryoko asks, startled. She sits up on the medical table, as much as she can with her growing belly, and the thin sheet that covered her slides to the floor with her motion. "Is it hurting the kid?"

"No—from what I can tell, Hotsuma was created to have the same abilities as you, probably to make you feel more drawn to him, so the baby's compatible with that kind of power on both sides. But it's hurting _you_."

Ryoko frowns. I lay my hand lightly on her bare back, her skin cool and goosepimpled, and she shivers. "What do you mean?"

The scientist scoops Ryoko's dress up off the floor and hands it to her as she speaks. "Flying and teleportation require a huge amount of energy. It's why you've always had such a big appetite. This kid is really strong, though," Washu says with a lopsided smile, patting Ryoko's belly fondly. "Even if you ate all day long, without stopping, at this stage you still wouldn't metabolize enough energy to keep her and yourself going and still have enough left over for flitting around all over the place. It's taking a toll on you."

"I guess that's why I've been so tired lately," Ryoko murmurs, shaking out her dress and pulling it awkwardly over her head.

Washu nods. "You're getting weaker, and that endangers the baby."

"Well…all right, then. Earthbound, it is, I guess."

Washu glances at me, her vibrant eyes speaking volumes. Ryoko doesn't sound too happy about this loss of mobility, and I can already imagine that it'll be all Tenchi and I can do to keep both her feet on the ground. I sigh, and take her hand to help her down from the table.

"Hey, everyone, dinner's ready!" Without any of us hearing her, Sasami's suddenly in the doorway, grinning at us. "Come on, or it'll get cold!"

Washu rubs her hands together with a delighted smile. "All right! Food! We're coming, Sasami-chan!" Then the scientist is out the door before Ryoko's even got her slippers back on; we just look at each other and laugh. Some things never change.

~o~o~o~

Washu disappears into the lab again after dinner, and Kiyone drags Mihoshi back to their apartment, claiming an early day tomorrow. Tenchi and I sit bookended on the couch, with Ryoko sprawled between us—her feet in his lap, her head on my shoulder. Sasami sits on the floor without complaint, as she has done the last week or so. She can see how tired the pirate has been, and allows her every comfort.

We're watching some kind of romance movie, which Tenchi and Sasami both blush at and Ryoko dozes through, when I feel the pirate's muscles tense. Her eyes fly open, and she lays a hand against her belly. Tenchi looks over at her, startled. "Is everything all right?"

Ryoko nods silently, then grins, grabbing his hand and mine in the same motion and pressing them to the bulge of her dress. Sasami lays her head beside our hands, her eyes wide and curious. We're all very still for a moment, and then I feel it—a little fluttering kick, and then another.

Sasami laughs, overjoyed; Tenchi gasps, then laughs too. "Hi there, baby," he murmurs, entranced. I suddenly remember draping myself over my mother's huge belly, in the months before Sasami was born, feeling that same flutter. The thought makes my eyes blur with sudden tears, and I rest my chin on Ryoko's shoulder, strangely overcome. While my sister and Tenchi are focused so entirely on Ryoko's belly, I press a quiet kiss to her cheek. She turns her face toward me, just the tiniest bit, and laces her fingers with mine, the crystals on our wrists knocking together beneath our sleeves.

"I bet you're gonna be really strong, just like your mama," Sasami murmurs to the baby, her whole face glowing with delight. "I can't wait to meet you."

"Would you like to see her right now?"

We all turn, startled, and Washu grins like the cat that ate the canary. Her eyes meet mine for just a moment, and I know she's been standing there this whole time; I flush, and sit up.

"What do you mean, Miss Washu?"

"Well, I just happened to have this invention lying around…it's a bit like an ultrasound, except much clearer." She holds up what looks to me like just a thin strip of tape. "We just lay this over Ryoko's belly, and it'll project a holo-image of the kid. She's far enough along now that it should be a pretty neat picture."

Ryoko grins, her eyes lighting up. "Well, let's try it, then!"

Washu chuckles and leans over the back of the couch, laying the strip over Ryoko's belly with rare tenderness. We all lean forward a little, intent, as Washu presses a tiny button on the end of the strip. A holo-screen leaps into life, projected from a tiny spot in the center of the strip, and it takes me a moment to understand what it is we're seeing. Then suddenly the image snaps into place in my brain—a tiny, curled body and an overlarge-looking head, with long squared-off ears like Ryoko's, wide-set eyes and a face that seems strangely canine. Her forehead is marked with faint dark shapes that curve around her closed eyes.

"Oh," Sasami murmurs wonderingly. "She's so small!"

Ryoko reaches out to touch the image, forgetting it's a hologram, and lets out a startled breath when her fingers go right through it. "She looks like him."

"I guess so," Tenchi answers, clearly puzzled by the strangeness of her features.

"We…before I came back, we fought," Ryoko explained, still staring at the image of the baby, "and he changed. He turned into…something else, he was like this big, snarling dog, and he had brown markings on his face, just like what she's got."

"I think she looks sweet," Sasami says, entirely genuine. "She'll be beautiful like you, Ryoko-neechan."

Ryoko tears her eyes away from the image, startled, and Tenchi smiles at her expression. "You know, I think Sasami's right!"

Washu chuckles. "Imagine, our own pretty little wild girl running around the house."

"Yaseiko?" Tenchi murmured thoughtfully.

I glance up at him, frowning; most Japanese is translated automatically by the tiny language assimilator implanted in my brain, a technology most space-explorative worlds embrace and distribute, but whatever Tenchi had just said didn't come across. From the looks on the other girls' faces, I can tell it didn't translate for them, either. Tenchi smiles sheepishly, blushing.

"It's one possible way to say 'wild child,'" he adds. "I was just…trying to make it into a name."

"Yaseiko," Ryoko repeats thoughtfully.

Washu chuckles, her eyes sparkling. "I like it."

"Me too," I murmur, and Ryoko smiles.

"Well, let's try it out for a while, and see how it suits. Okay, little Yaseiko?"

The baby in the hologram wriggles, kicking hard enough to jostle the image, and Ryoko sucks in a sharp breath at the sensation. Nobody speaks, but I can see we're all thinking the same thing. _It seems the decision is being made for us!_


	7. Week 32

~Week 32~

Ryoko's healthy glow is returning, now that she's stopped using her powers; I see Tenchi watching her more than ever, and I can't help but watch her, too. She's unconscious of the change, and the radiance of her eyes at breakfast or her slender neck as she bends over one of Father's manga is strangely intoxicating. Of course, she also grows moodier by the day, which seems to balance out the attraction. One afternoon as she stomps up to her room in a fit of pique, Tenchi turns to me with a wry smile. "I think she needs to get some air."

"You look like you have something particular in mind, Tenchi…"

His smile widens. "Actually, I do. Do you think the Guardians would be up to carrying some passengers?"

After a moment's thought I catch on, and grin at his cleverness. "Oh! Of course. Why don't you coax her down, and I'll go get Azaka and Kamidake." I turn away to fetch them, but Tenchi catches my hand, pulling me up short.

"Aeka…"

"Yes, Lord Tenchi?"

He flushes, but holds my eyes. "Thank you."

"For…for what?"

"For being so kind to Ryoko. For supporting her, when she was too scared to ask for help. I know you two have had your differences in the past, but…"

"That's the past," I murmur, squeezing his hand. "She's…very precious to me now. Just as you are."

He holds my eyes a moment longer; suddenly he steps toward me, his hand curving around the back of my neck. He kisses my forehead softly, just below the tiara that marks me as royalty. I know, in that moment, that I could give it up—I would give up the throne, if I had to, for this boy. Then he turns and hurries up the stairs to Ryoko's room, gone before I can formulate a single word. Shocked into stillness, I stand there dumbly a moment longer, then rush outside to find the Guardians with my face eaten up by an irrepressible smile.

~o~o~o~

"We'll be safe, right?" Ryoko asks as Kamidake tips forward to let her astride. Tenchi lifts her up onto the Guardian with a little grunt of effort, then hops up behind her, wrapping his arms around her and the baby both.

"Safe as houses," he says with a grin.

"Much safer than _this_ house, I assure you, Lady Ryoko," Kamidake pipes up. "We'll steer clear of Mihoshi and Kiyone's shuttle, should it appear."

Azaka tips himself over as well, and I climb aboard, smiling at the warm wood under my hands. "All right, Azaka, Kamidake—let's go!"

Any reservations Ryoko might have had about trusting flight capabilities other than her own vanish in the first moments we are airborne. She throws her head back and laughs, her face painted with joy as we soar over the countryside, and it's so apparent to me how badly she _needed _this that I let my own worries about safety drop away. The wind whips past my ears and steals away anything the three of us try to shout to each other, so I just relax, and let the exhilaration fill me. We fly over the carrot fields and along the mountainside, all the way to town and back, not touching down to Earth again until the sun has begun to set.

Ryoko's so soothed by the familiar feeling of flight that she's asleep on her feet by the time we return to the house, her arm slung over Tenchi's shoulders. "I'll take her," I murmur as she blinks blearily around at the living room. "Why don't you just come get us when it's time for dinner?"

"Sure," he replies, and gently slips out from beneath Ryoko's arm. I take her hands in mine to steady her, and draw her up the stairs to her room. Washu switched her futon out for a Western-style bed when her belly started getting too big, to make it easier on her back, and I'm grateful for its height as I lower her onto it; as it is, her sleepy weight drags me down beside her, and she laughs.

"Sorry, Aeka…" she mumbles, curling up as best she can and hugging my hand like it's a teddy bear. Her eyes close the minute she hits the pillow, and I try to extricate my hand; she grips it more tightly. "Stay…" Then she nestles her cheek into my palm, and turns her face to press a kiss there.

I shiver softly and blush, giving in, and sit closer to stroke her hair back. She sighs at the touch, a satisfied sound that makes my cheeks burn even redder, and I let out a shaky breath. Gingerly I lie down beside her, watching her face; she's already asleep, my hand still tucked beneath her head. _Well, pirate,_ I think to myself, watching the gentle rise and fall of her chest beneath the low neckline of her shirt, _I suppose this is one way to resolve our rivalry. Not the most orthodox, but…unless I'm mistaken, I don't think Tenchi minds a bit. Of course, once Nobuyuki gets wind of it…_. I smile wryly, closing my eyes and relaxing into the soothing warmth of the bed. _We'll never hear the end of it_.


	8. Week 34

~Week 34~

"Hello, everybody, I'm home!" Nobuyuki calls, slipping off his shoes in the entryway.

"Welcome home, Father!" Sasami calls back from the kitchen. "You're just in time for dinner!"

Nobuyuki grins, coming into the living room carrying a big paper tube. "Well, I have a surprise for everyone, before we sit down to eat." Then he smiles warmly at Mihoshi, Ryoko and I, sprawled on the couch together. "Good evening, girls. How are you feeling today, Ryoko?"

"Hungry," she answers with a grin, and he laughs.

Mihoshi swallows the rice cracker she was munching, looking up at him with her wide eyes. "What's the surprise, Father? Is it something to eat?"

Nobuyuki laughs again. "No, it's even better. Come over here to the table and I'll show you."

Kiyone and Tenchi are already setting places for dinner, but they stop when Nobuyuki comes over and unrolls the paper tube he's carrying down the center of the table. It's a blueprint of some kind, the sort he makes for the architectural firm where he works, and the more I look at it the more familiar it seems.

"Hey, that's our house," Tenchi says with a puzzled smile, and with that in mind, I can see it clearly. "But what's this?" He points to the focal point of the blueprint, a room off the side of the house, below Ryoko's.

Nobuyuki's chest puffs out proudly. "A nursery!"

We all look up at him, except Ryoko, who's tracing the dimensions of the room with her fingertip. "A nursery…"

"Well, I figured we would put the crib in Ryoko's room when the baby's born, but once she gets big enough, she'll need a child-friendly space to play in."

"It's perfect," Ryoko murmurs, looking up at him with a shining expression. Father blushes and pats her shoulder lightly.

"I've just got to get the materials, and we can start building!"

"We?" Tenchi asks, suddenly suspicious. "Why can't we just get Washu to make it in subspace?"

Noboyuki waves this idea away. "Now, Tenchi, that's much to easy. Your Grandpa and I have talked it over, and this is our gift for Ryoko and the baby. We're not afraid of a little hard work, and I've been itching to add onto the house myself for a while now."

"We can help, right Kiyone?" Mihoshi offers with her usual exuberance, and Kiyone shoots her a fond look.

"Sure we can."

"We'll all help," Washu pipes up, appearing from out of nowhere the way she always does. "It'll be fun to do something the hard way for once, right Tenchi?"

Tenchi chuckles. "Fun…sure, it'll be fun. All right, let's go for it."

Ryoko's still looking down at the blueprint, and she scrubs her sleeve quickly across her eyes before looking up again, glancing around the table and fixing on Nobuyuki. "Thank you…this…this means a lot."

Father smiles warmly. "You're family, Ryoko. It's my pleasure."

There's an awkward moment where I can see Ryoko struggling valiantly against her hormones, trying to keep from bursting into tears, and it's Sasami who saves her from that particular embarrassment. My little sister comes barreling in with a full pot of soup and Ryo-ohki on her shoulder, grinning ear to ear. "Dinnertime! What's this paper doing on the table? I've got to put the food down."

Nobuyuki laughs and rolls up the blueprint again with practiced ease, and for a moment it's easy to see a little bit of Tenchi's grace in his father. Sasami sets down the steaming pot, and Kiyone suddenly realizes she's still got a pile of bowls in her hands, and Mihoshi starts babbling to my sister about the new nursery plan. In the inevitable chaos of mealtime, Ryoko takes a breath to calm herself and grabs my hand, then Tenchi's, and pulls us down to sit on either side of her. Washu chuckles to herself and sits beside me. "So, Ryoko," she says conversationally, reaching over to dish herself some soup. "How's that absorbent bra I whipped up for you working out? Any more leakage problems?"

Ryoko's face turns ten shades of purple in the blink of an eye. "Washu!!"

"L-l-leakage?" Nobuyuki stutters, then covers his nose and gets quickly to his feet. "Um, I'll…be right back!"

Tenchi pales at this, then just shakes his head and sighs as Ryoko reaches across me to shake Washu by the collar. The scientist is laughing, the maddest of her many mad laughs, and dinner has devolved into the sort of chaos that makes me feel surprisingly at home.

~o~o~o~

Mihoshi's wheedling actually gets her somewhere tonight, so she and Kiyone join the rest of us girls in the onsen. The blonde hasn't stopped talking, except to chew, since Father showed us all the nursery plans—but for once, nobody seems to mind.

"…I mean, who ever made the rule that girls have pink rooms and boys have blue rooms? Blue is a really nice color. Though yellow might be even better, nice and bright and sunny and playful, don't you think, Ryoko?"

The pirate chuckles, adjusting the bathing towel she's draped over her front; her increasing size has brought with it increasing modesty. "Well, yellow could be nice for the walls…I was thinking I'd like to paint the ceiling to look like space, though, you know?"

"Space is pretty big," Kiyone murmurs with a smile. "Any particular part?"

Ryoko sighs wistfully. "Oh, I don't know…"

Washu snorts softly. "I doubt that. Come on, you can tell us."

"All right, well…I was thinking maybe the view of Earth, of this solar system, from the place where Hotsuma built our hideout. It was too far away to really pick out Earth, or even the sun here…but I used to spend a lot of time…" she pauses, and I smile softly at her.

"Looking in the direction of home?"

Ryoko lets out a breath. "Yeah."

Sasami, who's been surprisingly quiet this whole time, looks over at Ryoko then. "You know, before Aeka put the barbed wire up on the roof…Ryo-ohki and I used to sit up there and look for you. After you went away."

I find myself staring at my sister; I knew she'd taken Ryoko's disappearance the hardest, but I hadn't known, really, how she'd dealt with it. The idea of her sitting on the roof watching the skies for a sign of the pirate makes my chest ache peculiarly. Ryoko smiles at her though, tender. "Well," she says, "then I guess we were watching each other, huh?" She reaches out a hand to take Sasami's, and instead my sister throws herself on Ryoko; startled, the pirate wraps her arms around the child. "I'm sorry I left, Sasami-chan," Ryoko murmurs, very quiet, but we're all quiet too, listening. "But I'm back now, and I'll be here as long as my family is here. Yaseiko will need all her aunties, you know? I certainly can't teach her how to invent crazy machines, or do the Space Police Policeman dance, or hold down a job, or have good manners. And you know better than anyone that I can't teach her how to cook."

Sasami looks up at her with huge watery eyes, and finally smiles. "Yeah…that's true, oneechan."

"Oh…oh, you're both just SO SWEET!" Mihoshi wails, and leaps at them, sending a wave of water into Kiyone's face. Just like that, the moment is broken, and chaos reigns once more.

_Ryoko's right…this is home, _I think as I watch Washu try to hold the raving Kiyone back, and watch Ryoko try to keep from drowning under Mihoshi's exuberant affection. _And these women are my family—for the rest of my life_.


	9. Week 38, Day 262, Morning

~Week 38, Day 262, Morning~

"Aeka?"

"Mmm?" It's early still; I sit at the little vanity that Sasami and I share, pulling the sleeping cover from my head. Released, my hair falls around my shoulders in a shiny tangle.

Ryoko comes up behind me, handing me my hairbrush; she's been rising before me these days, and is already dressed and pestering me before I've had a single cup of tea. "I want to go up to the shrine today."

I take the brush from her, shooting her a surprised look. "Are you sure? That's a lot of steps, in your condition."

"We'll take it slow. I just…I'm going stir-crazy. And I want to go see Yugi."

I'm not sure what to say to this idea, so I start brushing out my hair while I consider it. "Well…I suppose as long as Washu says you're up to it—"

"I already asked her."

I chuckle, watching her face in the mirror; she's grinning, because she knows she'll do what she wants no matter what anyone says, but it'll cause less ruckus if I agree first. "Well, all right. Later, after breakfast. Now leave me be, you troublesome woman. Go help Sasami or something."

Ryoko snorts softly, but leans down to kiss the top of my head before she goes. As she waddles out the door, I wonder for the thousandth time if this new tenderness between us will last beyond the baby's birth, or if one day a month from now I'll wake up and find my dearest friend has become only my rival again. I hope, every day that passes, for the former.

She brings up the shrine idea again at the breakfast table, and wraps her arm around Tenchi with a solicitous smile. "You don't have to go out to the fields today, do you? Why don't you come up to the shrine with me and Aeka?"

Tenchi blushes, though there's nothing outwardly scandalous about the suggestion. "Well, I have to go up there anyway, to do my chores."

Ryoko's smile widens. "All right, good. After breakfast."

"I'll pack you lunch boxes, if you can wait a little bit for them," Sasami offers. "I bet you'll be hungry by the time you get all the way up there! I'll make some for Grandfather, too."

"Thanks, kiddo! You're the best."

Nobuyuki comes breezing through then, briefcase in hand and juggling what seems like a dozen paper tubes. "Have a good day Tenchi, girls…. I'm off to work, I'll probably be home late again."

"Oh, wait!" Sasami leaps to her feet and runs to the kitchen, running back out with a little wrapped bundle. "Here, Father, I made you a big lunch today. I thought, if you're not going to eat breakfast…"

Nobuyuki takes it with a grateful smile. "What would we do without you, Sasami-chan?"

My sister chuckles, blushing. "You'd eat a lot of take-out."

Father laughs, then points a finger at Tenchi. "Don't forget, tomorrow we're putting in the windows in the nursery."

"I remember, Dad."

Nobuyuki nods in approval and hurries out, muttering about the traffic he's sure to hit on the way to work, and Washu chuckles into her food. "That poor man. Do you think they'll ever stop working him so hard?"

"Oh, he likes it this way," Tenchi says with a knowing smile. "Dad complains a lot, but if he wasn't so busy, he'd be bored to tears."

I can't help it—old habits die hard. "Unlike a certain pirate…"

Without missing a beat, Ryoko throws a piece of broccoli at my head. "Shut up, you."

~o~o~o~

The sun is bright and the cherry blossoms are falling thickly when we start toward the shrine; I roll back the sleeves of my robe a little to catch the breeze on my arms, and Tenchi's got this lovely, peaceful expression, with the food Sasami made for us wrapped up and slung over his back. Ryoko seems to revel in the weather, too, smiling and flushed, letting the light wind toss her hair around her face. It's a silent climb, for most of the way—I think Tenchi and I are too busy watching Ryoko for any sign of strain to make conversation with each other, and she's too out of breath. When we stop halfway up for a rest, though, she's suddenly a chatterbox.

"Shit, that's a lot of steps. I never really noticed when I didn't have to lug a billion extra pounds around. You know, I've been to planets where women are pregnant even longer than this, can you imagine? I mean, nine months is bad enough. I always thought they must be crazy, to want to do that to themselves."

Tenchi chuckles and sits down on a rock beside her, by the side of the steps. "If there's one thing I've learned, it's that every woman is crazy in some way."

"Hmph," Ryoko grunts, leaning back on her hands. Tenchi chuckles again and rubs her huge belly with one hand.

"You're like a life-sized lucky Buddha."

"Oh, sure, make fun. This is all your fault, you know."

He opens his mouth to argue, and then closes it again. I can see the thought process working behind his eyes, and in the same instant I can see it in Ryoko's too—Tenchi's fault, because he left us. None of us want to joke about that, so I interrupt them with the first thing that comes to my mind.

"So what prompted you to visit Yugi, Ryoko?"

She smiles a little, her expression suddenly casual. "Well…I had a weird dream, that's all."

I dust the fallen cherry blossoms off the step near her feet and sit, looking up at her. "Come on, tell us about it."

Tenchi nods, with that grin he has when his sense of mischief is up, and Ryoko chuckles, shaking her head. "You two are incorrigible. It wasn't a pleasant dream."

"Oh…" Tenchi's expression shifts to something appropriately somber, and if I didn't know it was sincere, I'd have laughed at the change.

Ryoko worries absently at her bottom lip with one fang. "It was about the night Yugi attacked the house. Before I left. She…well, she had her fist in my throat," she says, staring into space as she remembers.

Tenchi looks quite startled at this and shoots me a look; _later_, I mouth to him, and he nods.

"Anyway, it didn't really hurt, not like when I _wasn't_ dreaming it, and I was just sort of hanging there, like I was frozen, just looking at her. Now, this is the weird part," she says, glancing from Tenchi to me and back again. "Her face started changing, shifting around, like that music video, that Michael Johnson guy."

Tenchi blinks at her. "Michael Jackson? _Black or White_?"

"Yeah, that's the one!" Ryoko grins.

"You've been watching Pop-up Video again, haven't you?"

I wave an impatient hand at him, chuckling. "Oh, let her finish the story."

Ryoko looks like she forgot for a moment what she was telling us; then she picks it up again, her expression sobering. "Okay, so her face started changing into someone else's face, and then it was Hotsuma instead of her. And that's when it started to hurt, like it did when she blasted me, so I was trying to get away, but you know how that goes in dreams, you can't ever get away…" Tenchi's eyes are round with concern by now, and even I'm feeling bad for her, and when she sees this she continues on quickly. "But that's not the important part. The important part is that when Yugi changed into Hotsuma, I realized that they looked a lot alike. I mean, the same eyes, the same color hair…and there was something that was just…similar, about them." She pauses again, looking at the two of us. "I wasn't sure if they really did look alike, or if that was just a dream-thing, so I figured we could go to the cave and see."

"Well…Washu said that Hotsuma and those other two henchmen were Yugi's creations…so I guess it makes sense that at least one of them would look like her, right?" Tenchi muses, and Ryoko frowns a little.

"Sure, I guess. I just want to see. To set my mind at ease."

Tenchi shoots her a gentle smile. "That's what I'd want too, if I were you. We can have lunch with Grandpa when we get up there, and then go see Yugi afterwards."

"All right," I put in, getting to my feet and dusting myself off. "If we're going to get to the shrine for lunch, we'd better get going again. Are you rested, Ryoko?"

"Rested enough," she admits, and lets Tenchi pull her back to her feet. I start up the steps ahead of them both, when Ryoko's snort of laughter pulls me up short. "Aeka, you've got flowers on your butt." Before I can properly react to this idea, she's already patting them away.

I flush red to the roots of my hair and turn to scowl at her. "I can dust my own behind, thank you," I stammer, and she blinks at me, then laughs and holds up her hands. As I turn away again, though, she slaps my rear end with a sharp _crack!_ and I jump what must be three feet in the air. I whirl around again, and she's bent over with laughter now, gripping her huge belly.

"I just thought…haha! I thought you might like…hahahaha!"

Seized by a fit of (relatively) good-natured vengefulness, I stomp down the steps past her and slap her just as hard. "Well, maybe you'd like a good whack too, you madwoman!"

This just spurs her on; she covers her behind with both hands, howling with mirth. "Aeka! I had no idea…hah! You were into that stuff!" By now her laughter is so infectious that I can't help it—I start to chuckle, and then suddenly I'm wiping tears from my face, and Ryoko's grabbing my elbow. "Look, look at Tenchi!"

I turn to him; he's standing patiently a few steps below us, pinching his nose with his head tipped back, with the resigned look of a man who's gotten used to frequent nosebleeds.


	10. Week 38, Day 262, Afternoon

~Week 38, Day 262, Afternoon~

"Thank you for bringing this food up here, Tenchi. Sasami's meals are always a treat."

"You can say that again," Ryoko adds with a satisfied sigh. "One of the things I missed most in space was Sasami's cooking." Grandfather pours her some water and refills my tea with his usual mild expression.

"Thank you," I murmur, and he just nods.

Tenchi polishes off his own tea and smiles. "Well, we should probably head over to the cave, and then I have chores to do—those steps won't sweep themselves."

"A wise observation, Tenchi." Grandfather stands and offers me a hand, then the other to Ryoko. She groans like an old woman as she stands, pressing her fists into the small of her back, and Grandfather chuckles. "Are you all right, Ryoko?"

She grimaces. "Fine, except for how everything hurts, and I can't wait to pop this kid out."

"Tenchi's mother said the same thing, and so did my late wife." He pats her shoulder with a smile. "But it'll be any day now, I suppose."

"Yeah…I guess so." There's a little thread of nervousness in her voice at this suggestion, and she loops her arm through mine. "We should get going, huh?"

Grandfather smiles rather knowingly, and as we file through the door out into the shrine yard he hands Tenchi a broom. "You can sweep in front of the cave, while you're over there."

Tenchi chuckles. "Sure thing, Grandpa."

~o~o~o~

The cave is quiet, and eerily lit by Yugi's containment field; Ryoko stands close, peering at her face with an unreadable expression. Tenchi and I, by unspoken agreement, stand back a few paces to give her space; she doesn't seem to notice either way. She stands there for some time without moving before she finally speaks.

"Just like in the dream…. He did look like her. When he looked human, that is." She turns a little toward us, then seems to change her mind and turns away again, rubbing her hands over her belly anxiously. Watching her back, I can see her breathing; she keeps taking these deep breaths, like she's about to speak, but she doesn't.

"Ryoko?"

She does it again—a deep breath, but no words, and then another. "I'm scared," she says finally.

Tenchi and I are on either side of her a moment later, him with an arm around her shoulders, me with her hand in both of mine. "It's all right," he murmurs.

"We're with you," I add, and Ryoko nods, her eyes closed. Then she opens them again, and tears spill over, glinting oddly in the dimness.

"I missed you so much," she chokes out, and I can't tell who she's talking to, but she turns and buries her face in Tenchi's shoulder, and he presses a gentle kiss against her cheek. Then he looks at me over her shoulder, and pulls me into his other arm. I nestle myself there, stroking Ryoko's hair back, listening to her hitching breaths and Tenchi's heartbeat.

"We'll stay like this forever, don't you think, Ryoko?" I ask her quietly. "The three of us…together."

"Four," Tenchi murmurs, glancing down at the pirate's belly. "The four of us."

Ryoko turns her head a little to look at up at him, then over at me. "You really mean that?"

"You know I do," I tell her, and saying it somehow makes it real to me—how much I love them both.

"You too, Tenchi?"

"Yes," he answers simply. I tip my face up to look at him, and Ryoko does, too; there's a serenity, a certainty in his eyes that I've never seen there before. He suddenly looks grown up.

Ryoko must see it too, and she lifts her head so they're eye to eye—_he's grown_, I realize suddenly, _he used to be shorter than her_—and then she leans in and kisses him, and his eyes slide closed. Then his arm tightens around me, and I turn my eyes down again to give them their moment—and it doesn't hurt at all. I lay my hand on Ryoko's belly, making slow circles with my palm; with my ear to Tenchi's chest I can hear his heartbeat speeding. Inside its pouch around his neck, his gem is quietly humming, and when I pull back my sleeve, my own is glowing gently. I grin at that, and under my hand the baby seems to be in motion. It's not quite like what I've felt before; I can feel the muscles of Ryoko's abdomen tighten, hardening under my fingers. It seems to go on for some time, and I continue the slow circles and wonder if it's some reaction to the kiss. I'm distracted from that thought when I hear them break apart for gasping breaths, and then Tenchi pulls her tighter into our circle and they're kissing again. I chuckle very softly, strangely pleased, and Ryoko's hand covers mine as her muscles relax again.

They are caught up in each other for a good long while; now and then I sneak a glance up at them, my face reddening, hoping for a turn and finding myself uncertain about which of them I wish was kissing me. It's been so long in coming, though, that I decide a few more minutes won't kill me, and I close my eyes, just listening. They break apart again, both of them a little trembly; then Ryoko takes my face in her hand, and her mouth is on mine before I know what's happening.

Her mouth is hot as August, and pliable, and _soft_, just like they say in Nobuyuki's manga. I press closer without thinking, her nose bumping mine, her belly between us and Tenchi's arm firm around my back. Then it happens again—that tightening in her belly, I can feel it with my body and under my hand. She kisses me harder all of a sudden, with a strained little moan, and then pulls back. "The baby…"

"Wh…what?" I open my eyes, and hers are narrowed in pain, unfocused.

"The _baby_," she says again, and then I understand as I feel her muscles loosen. She lets out a breath, blinking at me and then up at Tenchi. "I think we should go back down to the house."

"You mean…now?" Tenchi asks with a tiny hint of panic, that little squeak at the end of the question that I've grown so used to in his speech.

"Yes," Ryoko says rather forcefully, and suddenly it snaps into place in my brain, and the kisses are all but forgotten.

"All right. Have you been having them for a while?"

She nods. "Since this morning, but I figured it was just more fake labor. They're getting stronger, though."

"Then let's just take this one step at a time. Tenchi, go to the shrine office and call the house, tell them to send Azaka and Kamidake up just in case, and make sure Washu knows we're coming. Do you think you're all right to walk down, Ryoko? We've probably got a bit of time before things really get going, and the movement might help."

She nods in agreement, latching onto my arm like a lifeline. Tenchi just looks at her, and then at me, and then he laughs. "I'll…I'll go call the house! I'll catch up with you in a minute!" Then he races out, the _slap _of his sandals against the stones echoing in the quiet cave.

"All right, Ryoko…we'll just take it slow, and you watch your step now, it's slippery in here." She nods again, lacing her fingers through mine. She looks so genuinely frightened, and at the same time so absolutely glowing that I have to smile, and I squeeze her hand. "I love you. Everything's going to be fine."

She looks up at me, startled, then manages a shaky smile. "I love you too."

Tenchi comes racing down the steps after us a few minutes later, breathless. "Washu says to start timing the contractions, and the Guardians are on their way, and Grandpa's coming down as soon as he closes up the shrine office."

"Do you have a watch?"

"Huh?"

I chuckle. "A watch. To time the contractions."

He blinks at me, then looks down at his wrist. "Oh! Yeah."

"Give it here." He takes it off and hands it to me, looking sheepish and anxious at once, and takes Ryoko's other arm.

"How are you doing?"

She flashes him a smile, the big toothy kind with her fangs showing. "I'm having a baby, what do you think?" But she chuckles to show she's just teasing him. "Anyway, I'm a pirate. I've had every kind of pain there is."

"Except this," I point out, and she nods grudgingly.

"Except this. But hey, it can't be worse than when you blew me up with your mother's sword, right?"

Tenchi chuckles awkwardly at this, but he can tell it's partly her bravado, and he lets it go. "Yeah, right."

Katsuhito joins us a moment later, broom in hand. "Tenchi! Here, make yourself useful and sweep as we go." Then he takes Ryoko's arm like he's escorting her to a ball. "Can't have you slipping on cherry blossoms, now can we!"

Tenchi sighs, defeated, and starts sweeping a path ahead of us; when Ryoko pulls up short with another contraction, I check the watch, and the old priest, in his mild tones, starts asking her questions. His presence is so entirely calming that I don't even listen to the words, or to Ryoko's replies, just the easy tone of her voice as he distracts her. Then the Guardians come barreling up toward us, and circle like anxious parents themselves as we make our way steadily down.


	11. Week 38, Day 262, Evening

~Week 38, Day 262, Evening~

Washu and Sasami are there to meet us at the bottom, the scientist with a wide, tender smile and her hair bundled into an impossible bun, my sister with so much energy she's bouncing on her toes, her pigtails bobbing crazily. "I called Father, he's going to pick up Kiyone and Mihoshi on his way here. Oh, Ryoko, I'm so excited!"

"You and me both, kiddo."

Washu chuckles. "All right, let's get you set up down in the lab. Have you been timing the contractions?"

"Four minutes apart, about a minute long," I tell her, and the redhead's eyes widen.

"Moving right along there, aren't you?" Ryoko just scowls, her hand tightening on mine as another begins. Washu peers into the pirate's face then, her expression calculating. "Try to keep breathing through it." Ryoko's scowl deepens, but she obeys; she can't quite keep it up, though, and is gasping when the pain recedes. Washu's expression softens. "Come on with me, while you have a break." She turns and leads the way inside, holding the storage unit door open for us. She looks at us consideringly, Ryoko starting to sag a little, Tenchi and I watching her like hawks, and smiles. "Aeka, you and Tenchi come on in with her. The rest of you stay out here, all right?"

"Yes, Miss Washu," the Guardians say as one, and Sasami droops, disappointed.

"Okay, but you guys have to tell us as soon as anything happens!"

"Why don't we make some tea?" I hear Katsuhito suggest, and then the door clicks shut behind us. The room we enter isn't the usual lab, though—it looks more like a bedroom, with a Western-style bed and a false window that seems to be simulating the weather outside, and a computer console off to one side.

"Oh…" Ryoko murmurs, looking around. "This is a hell of a lot nicer than the normal lab…"

Washu chuckles. "Well, it's a special occasion! Now let's get those clothes off you and get you up on the bed, and we'll see what's going on in there."

Ryoko looks momentarily embarrassed, then just turns to me and lifts her arms, and I pull the dress off her as Tenchi looks politely away. Folding the dress over my arm, I stare at her, startled that even now in her leakage-proof bra and wriggling awkwardly out of her underwear she could be so astonishingly beautiful; she catches me staring and flushes, but Washu breaks the moment with a polite cough.

"Okay, Tenchi," Ryoko calls when she's gotten herself comfy on the bed; he comes over to take her hand, as mesmerized and embarrassed as I, and we catch each other's eyes across her body. He smiles, slowly, and I can't help but smile back, until another contraction and Ryoko's urgent breathing brings our focus back.

Washu's already got her little transparent laptop out, and she plants herself at the foot of the bed between Ryoko's legs, reaching over to stick a little black square to her belly. "This'll give me all the readings I need," she tells us, her eyes on the computer. "Much better than Earth technology. Aha, there we go! Looks like everything's moving along nicely…the baby's heart rate is good…four and a half centimeters dilated. I guess all that walking down the stairs really got things going!"

"So…then she's pretty close?" Tenchi asks, and Washu laughs, patting Ryoko's knee.

"Well, I'd say we've got a couple of hours to go."

"A couple of _hours_?" the pirate growls, and lets her head fall back against the pillows. "Washu, you think you could make me a time machine?"

The scientist chuckles. "To speed things up, you mean?"

"No. I wanna go back in time and kill Hotsuma all over again."

~o~o~o~

Ryoko gets more restless as the contractions get more intense; with the little black square constantly monitoring the baby, Washu lets the pirate move around as she pleases—"Whatever makes you feel better," she tells her—and Tenchi and I follow her around like puppies. The hours drag by, distilling down to Ryoko's iron grip on my hand when they peak, her quick breathing, her colorful curses, and then the brief moments of exhausted rest in between. She doesn't say anything, but after a while I can see fear creeping into her expression as the contractions start to flow one into another without a break, and I lean close to murmur in her ear.

"You can do this," I tell her quietly. "You're the greatest space pirate in the universe, after all. You know, before we fell to Earth, people at home on Jurai used to say you were tougher and stronger than every other pirate put together."

"Better lookin', too," she grunts, trembling with effort, and Tenchi chuckles. I watch her face as she takes a shaky breath, and the panic starts to recede again.

At her computer console, Washu's checking the readings as they come in, and nods authoritatively. "We're getting close now, Ryoko, she's moving down, so if you want to push, you push, okay?"

Ryoko just nods, flopping back against the pillows in a moment of respite, her skin pale and shiny with sweat. Tenchi pushes a few limp strands of hair out of her face and she closes her eyes, and we're all still for a moment, silent and peaceful. But it's only for a moment, and soon enough the cycle starts again.

I lose all track of time in the pattern; Ryoko's grunts of effort, Washu's calm instructions and explanations, my voice and Tenchi's melding into a broken record of encouragements. "Aeka, get her leg, pull her knee up toward you a bit…" The pirate releases my hand reluctantly and keeps a death grip on Tenchi's. "That's a good push, Ryoko, give me another one…there you go!" Then suddenly I find myself staring with complete fixation at the top of the baby's little head, all covered in tufts of pale blue hair.

"Oh, she's got your hair, Ryoko!"

"Push, don't get lazy now, you're almost done."

"Oh my…"

"Can you see her yet, Aeka?"

"That's it, keep pushing, and there's her head!"

"I see her, Tenchi, she's so tiny!"

"You're doing great, Ryoko, just one more push and we'll have her."

And then suddenly she's there, a little tiny thing all slick and wrinkled, and Ryoko's cradling her against her chest and crying, and then we're all crying. I lay my head close to Ryoko's to look into Yaseiko's face, and I think I've never seen anything so beautiful.

We spend a long moment like that, Ryoko and Tenchi and I staring at the baby's scrunched-up face as she wails, with Washu flitting around us doing whatever needs to be done. Then the redhead leans in to cut the cord, wraps a blanket around Yaseiko and kisses Ryoko's forehead with a tender expression. "All the readings say she's hale and healthy! Now you give her to Tenchi or Aeka when you're ready to let her go, and get some rest. I'll go break the good news." Then she's gone in a whirl of efficiency, and the three of us—_the _four _of us_—are alone.

"She's beautiful," Tenchi murmurs, touching the baby's tiny head. "You're beautiful."

Ryoko laughs softly, her gaze still riveted, and she traces the dark markings on Yaseiko's forehead and taps her little canine nose. "She is beautiful…but I'm sure I look like hell."

"We won't hold it against you," I tell her, grabbing a sheet draped over the foot of the bed and pulling it up to cover her. She chuckles, then lays her head back with an exhausted sigh.

"Aeka…"

"I've got her." I lift the tiny girl into my arms, thinking suddenly of Sasami when she was born, and then the door opens and Sasami's there, along with everyone else. They crowd around me, grinning like Cheshire cats, and Nobuyuki's got his camera running to capture the whole thing for posterity. My sister, enchanted, turns to Ryoko with a hopeful expression.

"Can I hold her?" The pirate smiles and pats the bed; Sasami hops up beside her, and I lay Yaseiko in her arms. "Hello," she murmurs to the baby. "I'm your Auntie Sasami…welcome to our family."

~o~o~o~

Later, when Ryoko and the baby are both asleep and Washu's fixed up Tenchi's broken fingers—"Ryoko's got quite a grip," he admitted—the rest of us are sprawled out in the living room drinking sake and eating the inevitable barrage of snacks Sasami made during the long hours of Ryoko's labor. Tenchi's so quiet when he gets up that I almost don't notice him slip out of the room and into the unfinished nursery; I set my sake down and follow him.

He's standing there, looking around at the room as though imagining it painted and decorated, and he smiles when he sees me come in. "Quite a day we've had, huh Aeka?"

"Yes," I answer softly, and close the door behind me. I join him in the middle of the room, turning all around, taking it in. "Will you paint something pretty for her, on the walls?"

He cocks his head consideringly. "I've been thinking about it. Ryoko asked me to do the space-scape on the ceiling, too. She said she'd get me a star chart of what she wants."

I nod. "We should start making plans for our Tenchi Anniversary party, too," I muse. "It's so funny, that the baby was born so close to the day we all first met." Tenchi grins.

"Yeah, weird how that worked out…"

Then the sake I've had makes me bold, and I turn to him. "We never got our kiss." He blinks at me, startled by the change of subject. "In the cave, this afternoon."

His eyes light up with understanding, and he grins. "Well, that's easy to fix." Then he takes my hands to draw me close, pressing his mouth to mine. It's not the same as kissing Ryoko was, not at all, except for the way my heart flutters. I fold myself against his chest, so lost in his sweetness that I almost don't hear that familiar electric hum, and then Ryoko's silky voice.

"Hey, save some for me."

"Ryoko!" Tenchi exclaims, startled, then chuckles. "Aren't you supposed to be in bed?"

She shrugs. "I'm done with resting. Washu said to let the baby sleep a bit more before I feed her, she suggested I take a soak in the onsen…care to join me?"

Tenchi blushes furiously, and I'm sure I'm blushing too, but I loop my arm through Ryoko's anyway. "Sounds good to me." Ryoko and I both turn our eyes to Tenchi, and he chuckles, defeated.

"Well, how can I say no to the two most beautiful women in Okayama?"

Ryoko laughs and ruffles his hair. "In the universe, you mean. You know, Tenchi, we've been asking that for years."

"Truer words were never spoken. Come on, Ryoko, give us a lift." So she wraps her arms around us both, and all together we vanish, leaving the nursery still and quiet behind us.


End file.
